Flame Vs Flame
by Hitara Manitou
Summary: about a young pyro-kenetic/telepath who was raised to think her father was almost killed by Baron Battle, but what happens when she ends up living beside the one and only Warren Peace? Reviews welcome, positive criticism appreciated.
1. Chapter 1

Today was the last day of summer vacation, and it was also the Langley's first day in their new house. The two teens of the family were enjoying their last day of vacation by swimming in the large backyard pool that Tara Langley was only too happy to have in their new residence. Her brother Demitri Langley, the older of the two, was very grim about the end of summer.

"Come on Demitri! Cheer up!" Tara said as she swam across the pool in her black and green skull covered two piece. She looked at her brother who had just put earbuds in his ears to listen to his iPod which he blared on Nirvana, which was one of his most favorite bands.

"Why T?" He said calling his sister by the nickname he'd given her when she was little. "School starts tomorrow and I've got to repeat that stupid Mad Science class with crazy Medulla again."

Tara pulled out one of the earbuds so she could talk and said, "At least I'll get to go this year. And plus, you wouldn't have that problem if you hadn't slept through the class. Not to mention Cassidy's coming you know you've always had a huge crush on her. And guess what? Mom said she could stay over tonight so she'll be over at dinner."

Suddenly, there was a large flame that had appeared in the yard next door. The flame had shot up over the fence and captured Tara's attention immediately. Taking the opportunity, Demitri went back to listening to his music. Tara climbed out of the pool, grabbed her Nightmare Before Christmas towel, and walked over to the fence as she wrapped the towel around her waist. When she reached the fence, the flame was gone. Curious to what it was, she carefully shot up a small fireball of her own to see the result.

She heard someone move in the yard beside her and decided to grab a chair from their patio. She carried it to the edge of the fence and slowly stood up in it. As she began to peek over the fence she held her breath. As soon as she had her head over the fence, a pair of brown eyes coming from a boy her age were staring back at her.

"AH!" she screamed in shock and fell over from the chair, landing on her butt in her yard.

The boy next door snickered and then walked over to the door of the fence. He opened the door and walked over to Tara who was just starting to stand up. The boy was dressed in a red and black t-shirt with black pants. His hair was long, about down to his shoulders, and had two red streaks in it.

"Need help?" He said shortly as he held out a hand that had a fingerless black glove on it.

"Thanks." Tara said, taking his hand and standing up. When she stood, she noticed that he was about a half a head taller than she. "Name's Tara. We just moved in."

"Warren." the boy said. "And I know. I saw the moving van yesterday. So, what are you doing spying on your neighbors, kid?"

Tara looked up at him with a mixture of shock and anger, "First off. I am not a kid. I'm probly the same age as you are dude. And second, I wasn't spying."

"Then what exactly were you doing?" Warren said as he crossed his arms to wait for the answer, "Seeing if there was a welcoming committee?"

"You don't have to be rude about it you know." Tara said, getting defensive. "I just saw a flame come up and I wanted to see what it was."

"Why, you some kind of pyro?" he said back to her. "And I saw a flame from here too so how do you know it was from my house."

"I um," She started to say, "I did the one from here. I had a match and hairspray. I wanted to see how big the flame would be. And for your information yes I am a pyro and I'm damn proud of it."

"Didn't look like hairspray to me. Looked like a ball of fire." He said suspiciously, "Very small one but a fireball none the less."

"And what do you know about fire balls?" Tara asked as she glared at him, trying to read his mind at the same time. She ran into a wall as soon as she tried and looked shocked.

"Don't even try it girl." Warren said, "First thing my dad taught me when I got my powers was how to block a mind reader."

"But how did u?" she asked.

"I know when someone's trying to get in my head. And _you_ were trying." He responded, "So I'm guessing you have powers too? Not too many of us live around here. You going to Sky High?"

Before Tara could answer, Warren suddenly fell down. He was knocked out cold. Demitri solidified right behind the boy.

"You almost told him!" Demitri said angrily at his sister.

"Demitri, you didn't have to do that." Tara said as she looked at her brother.

"Yeah?" he said matter-of-factly. "Do you have any idea who that is T?"

"Said his name was Warren." Tara said shrugging.

"Yeah, it is Warren. Warren Peace." Demitri said. "You remember when Dad went to defeat that guy named Baron Battle?"

"Yeah?" Tara said, "What about it."

"If The Commander hadn't shown up when he did, Dad would've been toast." Demitri explained. "Battle is Peace's Dad. His dad tried to kill our dad."

"What?" Tara said, "Seriously?"

"Yeah. He's in my grade, but you may have him in a few classes." Demitri said to his little sister. "T, I don't want you talking to him ok?"

"Ok. I won't. But what are we going to do? Just leave him passed out in our yard?" Tara asked looking down at the boy.

"No. I'll take him back." Demitri said as he disappeared and lifted up the unconscious Warren Peace.

Tara saw the fence open again and a few seconds later it re-closed and Demitri re-appeared.

"Come on. Dinner's ready." He said to her, "And Cassidy is here."

**That Night…**

"Tara! Stop spacing will ya?" Cassidy said as she threw a pillow at her best friend. "Have you even heard a word that I've said to you?"

"Huh?" Tara said as she caught the pillow. "Oh, sorry. I was thinking again. What did you say Cass?"

"I asked you if you were excited about tomorrow." Cassidy said as if the answer was obvious.

"Oh, yeah I am." Tara replied. "I've always wanted to go to Sky High ever since Mom and Dad told us about it."

"Me too. And guess what?" Cassidy said. "Mariette is going too! She finally got her powers over summer break and e-mailed me telling me how she just can't wait to go."

"Awesome!" Tara excitedly said. "We'll be the three musketeers again, just like middle school."

"Yep! And hopefully we'll have the same classes too." Cassidy said.

The rest of the night the two girls stayed up talking and laughing, watching movies and just goofing off. When it finally rolled around to midnight the girls finally drifted off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Okay for the record, I am sorry that my first chapter was lame. I haven't had time to upload anything else since that so again I apologize. I hope that the next chapters are a bit more interesting and that you all give me feedback. Good or bad, I would love to hear what you have to say about my writing. Every writer needs criticism to make his/her work better. Thank you and enjoy.

DISCLAIMER-- I DO NOT OWN SKY HIGH OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM IT. I WROTE THIS STRICTLY FOR FUN AND AM NOT MAKING ANY KIND OF PROFIT OFF OF THIS.

The next morning as Tara started to wake up, she noticed that something was wrong in the room. Realizing this she kept her eyes closed and tried to read around the room for any thoughts. She found her brother who had just stepped into the room invisibly and was about to spray the two girls with a water pistol.

"Don't even think about it Demitri." Tara said sleepily as she opened her eyes and sat up.

"Aw! Sis, why do you have to use your powers first thing in the morning?" He asked her as he became visible.

"Because, if you would have done what you were thinking about doing, I would have roasted your ass and you know it." She said as she turned to wake her friend. "Cass, wake up."

"Hm?" Cassidy said opening her eyes and rubbing them. "Morning Demitri. Why do you have a squirt gun?"

"Because Mom told me to wake you guys up for breakfast." He said. "But Tara stopped me. Hurry up and get ready guys we gotta leave soon."

As soon as Demitri left, the girls got up and changed into their school clothes. Cassidy was wearing a kimono style shirt that reached about halfway down her thighs and a pair of navy blue jeans, her brown hair was half up and then put into a bun. Tara decided that for the first day she would wear her pink leggings under a Tripp skirt that was black, with pink ribbons hanging around it. Also, she wore a pink form fit long sleeve shirt that covered her hands from the thumb down and had a hole for her thumbs, over that was a short sleeve, black shirt that reached right below her ribcage and had Happy Bunny saying "do i look like i care?" across the front. She grabbed her black low-top converses, and topped it all off by straightening her hair and applying her make- up. When the two were ready they grabbed their school bags and headed downstairs.

After breakfast, the three teens went down the street to the bus stop as they waited for the bus to their school. When the corner of the street came into view, they saw another guy standing there as well. He had on jeans and a leather jacket, and his brown and red hair was about down to his shoulders. It was Warren Peace again. The whole ten minutes of waiting for the bus to Sky High was an overly long awkward silence in which even Tara and Cassidy didn't talk.

After the interesting bus ride to Sky High, and the even more lovely "welcome" from Speed and Lash, all of the freshmen were taken by Principle Powers into the gym for Power Placement. The placement went by fairly quickly. The teacher, Coach Boomer, called students up and asked them to show their powers. Then based on those, separated them into Hero or Sidekick. Tara was almost immediately put into the Hero class, while Mariette just barely made it because she almost blinded Coach Boomer. Cassidy was close to becoming hero, but was put into the Sidekick class. However, she didn't mind. The last to be classed was a girl named Layla who refused to show her powers, saying that she didn't believe in using them unless she had too. Boomer immediately put her as a sidekick and dismissed the class to lunch, ordering them to return for the rest of placement afterwards.

"At least you guys got the same classes." Cassidy said as the trio got their lunches.

"Yeah, but you aren't gonna be with us." Mariette said as they searched for a seat. "At least we'll still have lunch to hang out."

"And we have a free period right before the end of the day, remember?" Tara said as she picked up her hamburger and took a bite. While her friends started to have their own conversations about their summer, Tara started to look around the cafeteria. Part of her was just looking around spacing as she always did, but the other was searching for one person in particular. Before she could find him however, a wave of nausea hit her hard and her head began to throb.

The last thing she remembered was Cassidy putting up a quick shield so that she wouldn't hit the ground, and a ton of voices in her head. The last face she saw was Warren Peace sitting alone at a table looking at her. Then everything went black.

Tara woke up in a white room that she knew was the infirmary. "Hello Ms. Langley. How are you feeling?" the nurse said as she walked over to her. "Uh, I've got a massive headache but other than that fine." Tara said as she sat up in the cot that she was laying in.

"Do you know what happened in the cafeteria today?" The nurse said, giving her an aspirin and, checking Tara's pupils as she spoke.

"Actually yeah. I just got my mind reading power a month ago and Dad told me it would take a while to control it." Tara told the nurse. "I did this once over the summer at the mall."

"Thoughts got to be too much did they?" Nurse said. "I've had some with your case before. Just try to stay focused on something when you're head starts to hurt like it did and you should be fine. You're friends are very helpful, if not for Ms. Shields you'd have a concussion right now."

Tara smiled. "Yeah, we tend to watch out for each other."

"Well, Ms. Langley, everything seems to be just fine so if you wish you can go to you're next class." Nurse said just as the bell rang. "You missed the last bit of Power Placement, but seeing as you've already been placed that's not a problem. I believe you're first class is starting."

"Ok, um thanks." She said grabbing her messenger bag and leaving the infirmary. Right outside the door were her two best friends, looking as worried as could be.

"Tara, are you ok? What happened back there?" Mariette asked.

"Everything's fine. I just spaced out and couldn't control my telepathy is all. No big deal." Tara said shrugging and tucking her hair behind an ear as the three headed off to class.

"Dad told you to not space out, remember T?" Demitri said, coming up behind the girls. He'd clearly seen the incident in the cafe.

"I know Demitri, but its just hard to stop an old habit. Don't tell him about it please?" Tara begged her brother. "I don't want to have another week of training. I can deal and I promise to try and stop spacing until I can get this controlled."

"Ok, but one more time and you have to train again." Demitri said, turning the opposite direction. "And be careful."

"Will do big bro." Tara said rolling her eyes.

"Over-protective isn't he?" Mariette said as he became out of earshot.

"Cute though. Can't deny that." Cassidy said turning her head back from looking at the older Langley.

"You've been crushing on him since like sixth grade Cass. I think it was when we played spin the bottle." Tara said, causing her friend to turn bright red. "I still say you guys should just make-out and get it over with."

"I second that motion." Mariette said raising her hand and smiling. "You guys always give each other these looks anytime you're near each other."

"On another subject, here's my class so I'll see you guys later." Cassidy said changing the subject and heading into a classroom as her friends laughed and waved goodbye.

"What do we have again Mar?" Tara asked as they continued down the hall and up a flight of stairs.

"Um, I think we have Power training." Mariette said. "Which power are you gonna train with?"

"Fire of course. Only thing I can do with the telepathy is meditate and you know how much I hate staying still." Tara said as the two entered a gym like room on the second floor. It would've been just like a gym with its weights and machines, except for the specialty things in it that catered to different abilities. Like a heat proof room , a weight set that went up to 3 tons, and other things that Tara wasn't really sure were.

"Hello freshmen, as you already know from earlier I'm Coach Boomer." the coach said when everyone was in the room, although not all of them were freshmen. "Today will be the first day in Power Training for the majority of you. This class is one of the very few classes in which you will actually be encouraged to use your powers in school. You will soon split up into groups based on your abilities and those who carry similar ones. After this, you will find the equipment in this room that pertains to said powers and train as a group to help yourselves control and direct your powers correctly."

Everyone looked around the room at the various machines and equipment. After letting everyone search the room, Coach Boomer continued by calling out names and splitting everyone up.

"And last but not least we have the only two pyro-kenetics of this class, Langley and Peace. " Tara tried not to show surprise in her face as Boomer continued. "The only thing necessary for today is to see what you can do so far. Super strength uses weights, Mind movers see how much you can move at one time, and so on. Get to work."

Tara and Warren both headed over to the Heat Proof room that they'd been directed, to see how hot they could get.

"So the fire ball was you huh?" Warren said once they'd gotten inside and the door was shut.

Tara nodded in response, "The first flame was yours then?"

"Yeah. Didn't know you were a Langley though. Now I know where you got that little mind power." Warren said.

"Ok, get ready to start up kids." Boomer said through the speaker.

"I know about my dad, Stronghold's dad, and your dad Peace. My brother told me." Tara said, now glaring at the boy in front of her.

"Langley, you just made a big mistake there." Peace said glaring back. "No one talks about my dad."

Just then his arms flamed up from the elbow down. Tara mimicked his action but lit hers from the shoulder down. The temperature gauge on each side of the room went up according to each of them. Tara's was higher by 5 degrees.

"Pretty good. Lets see if you can go higher than this." Peace said as he made the flames on his arms go up to his shoulders and the flames themselves shoot higher. Now it was his temperature that was higher, by 10 degrees.

"Oh, trust me I can definitely go hotter." Tara said as she concentrated on the flames on his arms. Suddenly her flames shot about 4 feet from the top of the room and were now 20 degrees higher than Warren's.

Warren smirked and made his flames go just as high as hers were but 5 degrees hotter. Tara then increased her temperature by another 7 degrees, which put her ahead by 2. Warren had a look of extreme concentration and then his flames began touching the ceiling of the room and went up another 10 degrees, he was now ahead by 8. Tara got hers to the same height and interestingly enough, one degree higher than his. This went on for another 10 minutes until the two were only battling by mere points but were at the same full degree in heat.

"Class is over kids. Power down." Boomer said through the speaker. The two extinguished themselves and the room cooled down to normal.

"This isn't over Langley." Peace said as he headed towards the door.

"Not even close Peace." Tara said also heading for the door. There it was, an unspoken arrangement between Tara and Warren. They were now enemies.


	3. Chapter 3

DISCLAIMER-- I DO NOT OWN SKY HIGH OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM IT. I WROTE THIS STRICTLY FOR FUN AND AM NOT MAKING ANY KIND OF PROFIT OFF OF THIS.

After class, Tara caught up with Mariette and the two met up with Cassidy at her locker.

"So, how was your class?" Cassidy asked the two as she put her books into her locker.

"We had Power Training. And I actually thought it was pretty cool." Mariette said. "Of course that was right before I accidentally blew half of the lights in the building."

"That was you?" Cassidy asked. "I thought there was just a short or something. What about you Tara?"

"It was ok." Tara said shortly.

"Just ok?" Mariette said. "She got paired with that Warren Peace guy. The one who was sitting alone at lunch, staring down that Stronghold guy. Boomer said that they were the only Pyro-kenetics in our class."

"And it turns out he's the son of an ass." Tara said quietly to herself, as Cassidy closed her locker, and then said aloud, "So, we've got Mad Science 101 next what about you Cass?"

"Oh. Its funny because I have Power Training for Hero-support next." Cassidy answered.

"And then we all have a free period right?" Mariette asked.

"Yep. So meet out front after class?" Tara responded.

"Good plan. See you guys later!" Cassidy said as she went upstairs.

Mariette and Tara headed to their next class, turning the corner in the hallway. As soon as they rounded the corner Tara's shoulder hit something that grunted in response. It was Warren Peace, he glared at her and continued on his way. Tara was the only one to notice but chose to ignore the glare as they walked into the Mad Science room.

After class, the three met out front for their free class. Their first day at Sky High was almost over, and boy was Tara glad of it. Tara decided to stop by her locker, while Mariette went ahead to meet up with Cassidy.

"Excuse me." a girl's voice said beside Tara. "My locker's right here."

"Oh, sorry." Tara said, stepping aside to let the girl dressed in purple by.

"Its fine." the girl said as she opened her locker and got books out. "Name's Magenta. Who are you?"

"Tara. Nice to meet you." She said as she closed her locker.

"You too. See you around." Magenta said, as she left with a boy dressed in neon green who'd just arrived

Tara headed out towards the front doors leading out of the school. Just as she was about to head out she again bumped into someone.

"Watch it freshman!" the guy said.

Tara lit up a hand and turned around to the guy she bumped into. She was definitely not in a mood to be yelled at today, not after her first class with her new enemy.

"Oh, hey Tara. I didn't know it was you." the guy was Lash.

"Lash." she said putting out the small fire in her hand that she'd planned on throwing at him. "How was your summer?"

"It was great. Mom and Dad went on vacation in the Bahamas." He replied. "What about you and Demitri?"

"Oh, we went to Hawaii in June, Mom and Dad still got calls though. But otherwise we just moved. Nothing big." Tara responded.

"Is it just me or did you get hotter over the summer?" Speed said as he came up beside his friend.

"Buzz off Speed. You know it'll never happen." Tara said as she turned to leave.

Speed was right in front of her when she turned around. "Aw, come on! One date? Just one?"

"No, now move before I decide to make you Extra Crispy." Tara said, snapping her fingers and making a small flame, like you'd find on a lighter, appear on the tip of her finger. Speed stepped out of the way and Tara resumed her trip outside. When she finally made it outside it took her a couple of minutes to find her friends through the crowd. On the way, she met the girl named Layla, from power placement, and her friend Will. Then finally Tara found who she'd been looking for. They were both standing at the foot of the staircase beside a tree and talking about their first day.

"Finally, thought something had happened to you." Cassidy said as Tara joined them.

"Nah. Met a girl named Magenta at my locker." she explained. "Then I bumped into Lash at the door, and Speed tried to ask me out again. Then, on my way here I bumped into that Layla girl and her friend Will."

"He's liked you for how long now?" Mariette asked.

"I think almost a year." Tara answered. "Ever since Demitri introduced him to me. He's just not my type."

"And what exactly is your type Ms. Langley?" Mariette asked as a bird landed on her shoulder.

"I don't know yet. But I know its not Speed." she responded.

The bird on Mariette's shoulder then flew up and turned into a boy about 17 with blonde hair and blue eyes who wrapped his arms around Mariette from the back and kissed her cheek.

"Hello beautiful." he said smiling.

"Hey babe. How was your day?" She asked turning around and giving him a kiss.

"Very boring with you not there." He said hugging her.

Tara and Cassidy raised their eyebrows and cleared their throats, causing Mariette to turn around.

"And who is this good looking guy Miss Dark?" Cassidy asked, a smile on her face.

"Right. This is Frank Lender. I met him over the summer around the time that I got my powers. We hit it off really well and kinda started dating." Mariette answered.

"Wait, you're friends with Demitri Langley aren't you?" Tara asked.

"Yeah, he used one of my best friends. Kind of grew apart over the summer." Frank answered. "Wait, you're not Tara are you?"

"Yeah, I am." she replied.

"You're brother has talked about you coming this year since you got your powers. He's a really awesome guy." Frank said.

"Yeah. When he's not pissed that is." Tara said. "It was nice to meet you. And I hope you treat our Mariette right."

"And now we will leave you two love birds in peace." Cassidy said as she and Tara headed to find another place to sit. Before they knew it though, it was time to board the flying Sky High bus again.

"So, you met Magenta today?" Cassidy asked Tara.

"Yeah, it was only for like a second though. Her locker's beside mine." Tara replied.

"She's really cool. She's friends with that Will Stronghold guy, I think." Cassidy said. "And Layla too."

"Yeah, I think my parents know Stronghold's parents." Tara thought aloud.

"His parents are The Commander and Jetstream, of course they should know them. Those are two of the most famous super heroes around!" Cassidy responded.

"Oh, right. Hey Cass? Have you been practicing your drums over the summer?" Tara questioned.

"Yeah, of course. Why?" Cassidy asked in response.

"I was thinking maybe if we could find some people at school we could start a new band." Tara said. "And I also wrote a new song."

"Really? Can I see it?" Cassidy asked.

"Yeah." Tara said as she got her music binder out and handed a sheet of music to her friend. As Cassidy read over the music, she began to hum the tune to herself, neither of the girls aware that a certain someone was also listening.

"Have you gotten the words done yet?" Cassidy asked as she finished.

"You know I'm not good with the lyrics Cass." Tara smiled and said. "Which is why I was wondering if you'd use your AMAZING gift of writing for me and help me finish it, please?"

"Yeah. No problem. But I need the music with me." Cassidy said.

"Take it. I've got a copy at the house." Tara responded as the bus began to slow. "This is my stop so I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Yeah, see ya!" Cassidy said as her friend walked to the front of the bus and got off with her brother and neighbor.


	4. Chapter 4

DISCLAIMER-- I DO NOT OWN SKY HIGH OR ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM IT. I WROTE THIS STRICTLY FOR FUN AND AM NOT MAKING ANY KIND OF PROFIT OFF OF THIS.

The next couple of weeks or so went by just as boring as it would at a normal school. Classes, lunch, upper classmen dunking the sidekicks heads in the toilets, random frozen people on the lawn, you know the usual. Tara, Mariette, and Cassidy usually got to see each other in lunch and during their free class, but also they found out that they had gym together too. During lunch they would always sit together and recently started sitting with Magenta and her friends; Will, Layla, Zach, and Ethan

After lunch was gym class, where they did "Save the Citizen". Mariette and Tara's Power Training class was after that, while Cassidy went to Grammar for Hero Support. Mariette was starting to get very good at controlling her abilities to where now, she only blew a few of the lights in the classroom rather than the whole school. Tara, however, was still dealing with the rivalry/conflict between her and Warren Peace. It had now gotten to the point that when they passed each other in the hallways you could literally see the anger between them. Mostly because of the increase in temperature in whatever hallway they were in, but also because of the fact that both of their hands had flamed up a couple of times. This was usually right after they had been in training. A lot of the school said that Tara's anger towards Warren was almost to the same level as Warren's anger towards Will Stronghold. This kind of made sense if thought through. Warren's dad had almost killed Tara's dad, and Will's dad had put Warrens dad away in prison which was pretty bad in itself.

The two pyro-kenetics kept most of their anger pent up until the training class, but sometimes it was pretty close. Tara had actually almost gotten detention once for almost frying a student who had tapped her on the shoulder right after one of her training classes with Warren. Fortunately, after apologizing to the guy, who ended up being Ethan, Mr. Boy had let her go with a warning. Warren was getting pretty good at how to get Tara's temper going too. In their lessons he would just have to mention certain things, either pertaining to herself or saying how weak her family was, to get her to flame up. Her temper was getting almost as bad as his already was. Fortunately for her, she was able to let all of her frustrations out during her free period when she could take ten minutes or so to meditate and clear her mind. She did it partially for her brother and dad who'd asked her to work on her telepathy, but also because she felt much calmer afterwards.

After meditating, she and Cassidy would usually go over their music trying to think of words for the song they were coming up with. Mariette would join in every so often when she wasn't off with Frank. Sometimes Frank would even give off ideas. Like how the tune should be with the music and what tempo it should be. The three also found out that he used to play bass when he was in middle school. Unfortunately for them, he told them that he'd lost interest in playing. Which meant they couldn't ask him to join their hopefully, soon to be, band.

So, here it was now, the end of the first full week of Sky High. It was lunch time, and Cassidy and Mariette were waiting in the cafeteria, with the rest of their "lunch group", for Tara to come back from her History class where she was finishing up the notes that were on the board.

Will was on his way over to the table and about to turn when suddenly he was tripped, which made all of his food land on a very pissed looking Warren Peace.. Warren slowly stood up and glared down at Will.

Will nervously apologized, "Uh, sorry."

Warren walked toward Will and said angrily, "You will be"

Will backed up from him. "Look, lets not do this."

"You think you can do whatever you want just because your name is Stronghold?!" Warren demanded.

"I'm sorry that my dad put your dad in jail, but-" Will tried to say.

Warren lifted Will up by the collar and heatedly said, "Nobody talks about my father."

Warren quickly flamed up his hands on Will's shirt and let him go. Everyone realized then that there was about to be a fight. A few of the students started to chant the word fight, until the whole cafe was chanting. Warren flamed up his right hand and started to walk toward Will, who was quickly backing away. Worried about Will, Layla looked around for the nearest teacher who happened to be Mr. Boy, the sidekick teacher.

"Mr. Boy, do something!" Layla said.

Mr. Boy threw down his drink and ran out of the cafeteria for Principal Powers.

Warren continued to throw fireballs at Will, but ended up melting a tray that Will had put up to block. Warren threw another at Will, who ducked, causing the fireball to hit a wall and engulf it in flames. People then started come in from the hallway, Penny and Gwen Grayson pushing their way to the front.

Warren attempted another fireball but it missed and hit the lunch buffet. When Warren tried to throw another one, Will ran toward the fire alarm but was tripped by Lash. As Will began to get up and turn around, Warren threw a really big fireball, barely missing as the Freshman crawled under a lunch table. Warren then jumped on the table and started to throw more fireballs to knock everything off the tables.

When he reached the end of the table Warren looked down and yelled, "Where's you're sidekick, sidekick?"

Zach stepped forward and said "Right here!" as Layla, Magenta, and Ethan also stepped forward.

Warren lit up his arms to the shoulders and charged up a massive fireball. When he did, Ethan melted into an orange puddle. Will noticed this and put his arms up on the bottom of the table.

"Leave them alone!" he said as he suddenly lifted the table which surprised everyone.

Shocked, Layla said "He's strong."

Will, shocked at his own strength said "I'm strong?"

Finishing the surprise, Gwen said "He's super strong."

Will threw the table and ended up throwing Warren into a lowered part of the ceiling. Warren fell down into a table, shattering it. Everyone cheered, thinking that Will had won. Will then turned to Speed and Lash and asked who tripped him. Speed ran away and Lash grabbed the ceiling and pulled himself up.

"Stronghold!" Warren yelled as he got up.

Everyone around him scattered away as he lit up his arms again. In response, Will nervously put up his fists. Warren came up to Will and was punched through a wall and into a column.

Warren climbed back through the wall, looking completely unharmed. "Think I can't take a hit?" he said angrily.

Will looked at Warren who lit up his arms again and charged, yelling, forward. Layla threw a fire extinguisher at Will and told him to pull the pin. After struggling with the extinguisher, Will pulled the whole top of the extinguisher off just as Warren lunged at him. The foam went all over Warren, knocking him to the ground. When the foam began to clear off, Principal Powers walked over with her arms crossed.

"Hi." Will said cautiously.

Principal Powers then led the two students to the detention room.

"But I didn't do anything, he started it." Will said as they entered the detention room.

"You're dad started it. And I'm gonna finish it." Warren said, trying to flame up his arms again.

"Don't bother." Principal Powers said. "The detention room neutralizes all super powers. Sit." The boys obeyed. "Here at Sky High we do everything we can to teach you how to use your powers. But what you do with them? Now that's up to you. Living up to your father's reputation, or trying to live it down, is a sad waist of talent. Your talent. Try and keep that in mind the next time you're about to do something stupid." She said, turning to walk out of the room.

Will sighed. "Alright, look. Whatever happened with our dad's has nothing to do with us. What d'ya say?" he said holding out his hand for Warren to shake.

Warren looked at him and said, "I say. If you ever cross me again, I'll roast you alive." Will put his hand down and just sat there.

After about five minutes, the detention door opened and a girl wearing a maroon shirt with a Pirates of the Caribbean logo and a black long sleeve mesh shirt underneath, black skirt, and combat boots to her knees was brought in by Coach Boomer. The girl sighed and sat down in the desk across from Will and two down from Warren. As soon as she saw that Warren was there her face turned to disgust.

"What're you in here for?" Will finally asked breaking the awkward silence that had ensued.

"I tried to barbeque a Junior." Tara said simply. "What about you?"

"Oh, um, we kind of got in a fight." Will said glancing over at Warren.

"Bet Stronghold kicked you're ass didn't he?" Tara said smirking as she knew this would piss him off.

Just as she thought, Warrens response was to only glare at her. "You should feel lucky that my powers don't work in here. Both of you." He said.

"Really Peace?" Tara said, leaning forward on her desk. "Last I remember I was the one who beat you yesterday in Power Training. And even so, its tactics that would determine the winner and I say that I could beat you hands down. By the way Will, tell The Commander that my dad said hello."

"You think you're all high and mighty just because you hit a couple of degrees higher than me in class Langley?" Warren questioned.

"No, Warren." she said, actually using his first name. "I don't think I'm 'high and mighty'. I just know that you aren't that good at controlling your anger. And that anger is what would make you lose because you'd be so blinded with rage that you wouldn't know what to do? Understand? Or do I need to say it slower?"

"And you think you are?" Warren said quickly. "You got put in here because you toasted an upperclassman. Do you see that as anger control?"

"Geez, Peace if you must know, I tried to toast him cause he tried to smack my ass! If you were a girl you would too. Not that any of that matters." Tara said rolling her eyes. "And yeah I do call that anger control."

"Wouldn't have happened if you weren't wearing that skirt." Warren muttered to himself almost inaudibly. Will smirked.

"What was that?" Tara said glaring at him.

Warren ignored the question and pulled out a book from his bag. Tara stood up and walked over to him.

"I asked you a question Peace. What did you say?" She said calmly, wishing her hands could flame up to reflect what she really felt.

"I didn't say a word to you, Langley. I was thinking aloud to myself." Warren said just as calmly. "Therefore what I said is absolutely none of your business."

Tara rolled her eyes and walked back to her seat. She pulled out a notebook and used the rest of her time in detention to work on her music. Warren spent his time reading his book, and Will spent his doing homework. Principal Powers returned, about thirty minutes later, lecturing the three and sending them off to their last class.


	5. Chapter 5

I HOPE THAT ALL OF YOU ENJOY THIS CHAPTER, I'M NOT GUARANTEEING THAT IT IS GOING TO BE WONDERFUL BUT I HOPE THAT IT IS GOOD.

That night when Tara arrived home from school, the house was empty. Demitri had told her before school ended that he was going to spend the weekend with some friends who were having a party, and Tara's dad had left a note on the fridge. "Honey, there's twenty dollars on the counter, Mom and I will be home later. Order some food and rent a movie on us. Love, Dad" is what it said.

Tara sighed and grabbed the cash from the counter, grabbed the cordless from the receiver, and headed to the living room to see what was on cable. After flipping through basically all of the movie channels, she finally decided to leave the t.v. on Chiller. It was a channel that played horror movies and shows, old and new, all the time. Right now was an Alfred Hitchcock movie that she didn't really know the name of but decided to watch anyway until "Tales from the Crypt" came on next.

About halfway through the old movie, Tara got bored and went upstairs for her guitar. On her way back downstairs, she grabbed the phone book from the hall table to figure out what she wanted for dinner. She flipped through the phone book, looking through the list of restaurants. After getting half way through the list she finally decided on Chinese. The nearest restaurant was called "The Paper Lantern", so she dialed the number.

"Paper Lantern." a familiar male voice said on the other line.

"Um, yeah, do you do delivery orders?" Tara asked.

"Sorry." He said. "We do carry-out and dine-in that's it."

"Oh, ok." Tara responded. "Then can I make an order for carryout?"

"Yeah." the guy said, sounding bored. "What do you need?"

"Um, could I just get an order of fried rice, some sweet and sour chicken, Lo Mien noodles, and um some egg rolls?" Tara ordered.

"Fried rice, sweet and sour, Lo Mien, and egg roll?" the guy repeated. "That it for you?"

"Yes, I think so." Tara responded.

"Your total is $9.83" he said. "Give it about 15 minutes."

"Ok. Thank you." Tara said as she hung up the phone.

After hanging up the phone, Tara figured that if she walked to the restaurant, she'd probably get there just when her food finished. Not like she had anything else to do, the house was empty. So, laying her guitar on the couch, she put her shoes back on, grabbed her house key, and locked the front door as she closed it behind her.

It was a great night for a walk. The weather was perfect, and it wasn't too dark. Tara walked down her street and followed it about 3 blocks before turning by a park that was nearby. She followed the next sidewalk for about 10 minutes before arriving at "The Paper Lantern". Following a couple in, Tara closed the door behind her just as the bell above had dinged.

As waitress seated the couple in front of her, and Tara walked over to the cash register to pick up her order. Rather than facing the register, Tara randomly decided to watch the waitress take the couple's orders, people watching happened to be one of her many strange quirks.

"You the one with the carry-out order?" A deep, yet strangely familiar male voice said behind her. It was the same voice, she realized, from the phone.

Tara turned and was shocked to see none other than Warren Peace at the register.

"Um, yeah." She responded, trying to hide the surprise in her face.

Looking just as shocked as she was, Warren typed in the total on the register.

"Fried rice, sweet and sour, Lo Mien, and egg rolls?" He asked as she nodded. "Total's $9.83 Langley."

Tara handed him a ten and waited for her change as she continued to assess her confusion. Of course, it wasn't strange for a seventeen year old to have a job. It was just that she didn't think of Warren as the job type. Especially at a Chinese restaurant. Warren quickly gave her the seventeen cents he owed her and handed her the bag of food and started to walk off.

"Um, can I get some chopsticks?" Tara asked before he'd gotten off too far.

He turned around, grabbed a sleeve of chopsticks, handed them to her, and walked away not making eye contact. Tara looked at him one more time, and headed back out the door and in the direction back to her house. As she passed the park again, she thought that the weather was so nice that she would just sit in the park and eat her dinner. After all she already had the utensils in the bag.

Twenty minutes later, as she was just finishing up her last bit of fried rice, Tara saw someone walking in the direction of the park. As she went to throw her bag away in a trash can, she saw that the person was none other than Warren, again. As she dropped the last of her trash in, Warren seemed to notice her too.

"Waiting Langley?" he said sounding slightly confused as to why she was there.

"No Peace. I was eating." Tara said, as she turned to walk back in the direction of their houses. "Don't know why you're suddenly taking an interest."

Warren followed in step, starting out behind her, but quickly catching up.

"I'm not." He said as he walked. "Something has been on my mind though that I'd like to ask."

"No way in hell I'm going to homecoming with you." Tara responded with a tone of slight disgust.

"Don't flatter yourself. That's not the question." He said with the same tone. "I actually wanted to know what it was that your brother told you about our fathers."

"Why?" Tara asked confused as she stopped walking. "Shouldn't you know?"

"Well, yeah. I do know." he responded, also stopping his walk. "Just curious as to what you know."

"Ok then, whatever." Tara said sighing. "Years ago, my dad and your dad were in a fight, your dad almost killed my dad, and the Commander came and defeated your dad. Anything else Peace?"

"No. That's pretty much all I needed to know." He said, as he began walking again.

Tara caught up with Warren and, after a slight silence, asked. "Is that the same story you know?"

For a moment, Warren didn't answer. He debated with himself what he should tell her. She didn't know the real truth, and he knew that she probably wouldn't believe him. Demitri Langley, along with her father (known to Warren as Brain Storm) knew what had really gone on and hidden it from the youngest of the family. Now was the time to tell her what they'd hidden. Problem was, again, he knew she wouldn't believe him. Not at first at least, but she needed to know. This feud between them was completely under false pretenses, given to her by those she cared for most.

"I know you won't believe me if I told you the truth, so all I'm going to say is that you've been lied to." Warren said, deciding that's all he'd say on the matter. "All that shit you just told me? Its nothing close to the truth."

Tara looked at him confusingly as he walked ahead of her. Trying to decide whether or not he was telling the truth, she tried to read his thoughts. 'Everything I just said is the truth Tara.' his thoughts said, 'To prove it, I'm letting my barrier on my thoughts down so you can see.' After she heard all of that, Warren stopped in his tracks and turned to look at her.

For some reason, part of her wanted to believe him. What stopped that was that Tara knew he could lie just as well through his thoughts, as he could through his mouth. He'd said it when they'd first met, his dad had trained him against mind readers, probably her dad in particular. And unfortunately for him, it was that part of her mind that had won.

"Whatever Peace, don't talk to me." Tara said walking past the pyro-kenetic in front of her and through her front yard, slamming the front door after she opened it and went inside.

Tara grabbed her guitar and headed up to her room. Why had she wanted to believe him so much? They had been fighting since the first day of school and after a couple of weeks she wanted to trust him? What had gotten into her? Unfortunately she knew the exact answer, but denied it to herself because of the trouble she knew it would bring.

To get her mind off of the subject, Tara began to play her most favorite song that she'd written. It was sad, but fit for what it was for. Her dad didn't know, but when she was five, she remembered everything that had happened on the day before her sixth birthday. Day after day since, her father took the time and energy to keep up the illusion throughout the house. Making it seem like she was there, that she was happy and well, but Tara knew. That was what this song was for.

It was for the death of her mother. That day, her mother had gotten Tara her first guitar. On the way home, her mom had been hit by a car at an intersection while it was raining. Of all things, the element that she could've controlled. She hadn't survived, although no one else knew different. Except Tara. For some reason, her father's illusion hadn't worked on her. Besides read minds, her father could do other things to manipulate the mind. The one he'd used the most was to make everyone see and hear Sheri Langley, so that no one would know that she was dead. At least that was supposed to be how it worked.

Tara went with the act though. She didn't like to upset her father, and judging by the trouble he'd gone through to keep Sheri's memory so 'alive', Tara knew that facing her mother's death would crush him. Demitri didn't know either, she didn't think. Of course, whatever Demitri did know was always a mystery to her. He'd learned very early on how to block his thoughts from his own dad, she'd never figured out why and never asked.

Hours went by, and after hearing her father come back and go to bed from where ever he had been, Tara slowly got out of bed, slipped on a small half jacket, and snuck out her bedroom window, down the roof, and over until she could safely slide down onto the back deck to the pool. She slipped on some flip flops, that she'd used for when she went back and forth from the house and the pool, and headed over to the backyard fence.

Tara quietly unlocked the fence and slipped through into Warren's backyard. She was about to throw up a fireball to the room that she'd hoped was Warren's, when a hand barely tapped her shoulder. She jumped quickly and turned around, hand full of fire, quickly putting it out when she saw who it was.

"Trying to break into my house Langley?" Warren whispered, considering it was 1 am and the entire neighborhood was sleeping.

"Uh, no actually." She whispered back. "I was looking for you."

"Here I am, what do you need me for?" He responded. "More Chinese food? "

Tara glared at him and whispered. "I want to know what you know about our dads. But we can't talk here."

"Back to the park then?" Warren suggested. "The only place we'd really get to talk. Least about this."

Tara nodded and followed him out of his yard and in the direction of the park.

"So, what changed your mind Langley?" Warren asked as they walked down the silent streets, each with hands in their pockets.

"I have my reasons Peace." She responded shortly. She didn't even bothering to look at the guy, who was supposed to be her enemy, beside her. And then, more to herself than to him she added, "You know, for hating each other, we've actually had two slightly civil conversations."

"The whole school does seem to think that, don't they?" Warren replied.

"Think what?" Tara asked as they rounded the corner of the street to the park.

"That we hate each other." Warren said. "Guess people can surprise even themselves."


	6. Chapter 6

"So, how's this gonna work?" Warren asked as they reached the park. "I tell you what I know and then you decide whether or not to believe me?"

"Pretty much." Tara responded as she sat down at a picnic table. "Objections?"

"Well, no not really, its just that I'd like to be in bed. Asleep." Warren said, sitting across from her.

"Right. That's why you were traipsing around outside at 1a.m." Tara said rolling her eyes. "Can we just hurry up and get this over with so both of us can go home?"

"Right, so Little Miss Ray of Sunshine here can get her beauty sleep." Warren said sarcastically.

"Bug off Peace." Tara sighed. "Just hurry with your story."

"Well, like I said earlier, all that stuff you told me from the your dear older brother? Utter bullshit. He's covering for your dad and knows the real story." Warren said. "My dad and your dad, they weren't enemies. They were comrades."

"Sounds believable already!" Tara said in a mocking tone.

"Look Langley, you're the one who came to my house asking for the story, so let me tell it ok?" Warren said sternly.

Tara sighed and agreed to be silent as Warren told the story he knew.

"As I was saying." Warren continued. "They were close friends at Sky High during their last year, and carried on that friendship afterwards. The battle that you think Stronghold's dad saved your dad from? That's the one where your dad betrayed mine. They had both planned to go through with what they did back then and both been defeated by The Commander. But there was one problem. You're dad had the ability to manipulate minds. Memories, what you saw, what you heard, and probably more."

"How'd you know that?" Tara interrupted.

"How do you think?" Warren answered. "Dad was wary about Brain Storm's abilities already. That's why he taught me and my mom how to keep him out."

"Right." Tara said, understandingly. "Wait, Brain Storm?"

"You're dad's name before he went 'inactive', as everyone thinks." Warren said. "As I was saying, when Stronghold defeated our dads, Brain Storm used his little ability to change Stronghold's memories. Making him think that he'd rescued your dad from potential death. Since Stronghold was the only other witness that the authorities would believe, his story stuck and that's how everyone knows it."

"Hmm. And so this is the real story?" Tara asked.

"Look Langley, I honestly don't give a shit on whether or not you believe me, but that's the story." Warren said as he stood up from the table.

"I didn't say if I did or not." Tara responded. "I just, I don't understand why my brother would lie to me. But the part about Dad changing stuff. It makes perfect sense. He did that about mom."

Warren looked at her questioningly, and Tara continued, "When I was about to turn six, my mom died. Dad's been using his power since to make it to where no one even knows she's gone. Not even Demitri."

"Why would he do that?" Warren asked.

"Don't know. I guess he just loved her too much to let her go." Tara said. "Doesn't matter though because it never worked on me for some reason."

"Maybe its because you have his power?" Warren suggested. "I mean that would make sense wouldn't it."

Tara shrugged. "I suppose. But how do I know you're telling me the truth?"

"Like I said I don't care what you think. You wanted to know what I knew and I told you. End of story." Warren said. He saw a movement in the woods behind Tara and a thought occurred to him.

Tara, already distrusting of the guy in front of her, focused her thoughts for a moment to read his. She wanted to trust him, but what she found definitely changed her mind.

'That's right Langley, you know you want to believe the story. It makes so much sense doesn't it?' he thought. 'You will believe it, and when you do you'll fall right into my plan.'

Warren didn't want to plant the fake thought, especially not as lame as that, but it was the only thing he could do. Making her think that he'd accidentally let down his guard was the only way to keep her from who was slowly coming near them. It was for her own safety.

"You're lying," Tara said calmly, "Why go through all this trouble and then keep the walls down in your mind."

'I left them down?' he purposefully thought to her. 'Damn it!' He then added putting the walls back. "No, I didn't Langley. I don't know what you're talking about." Warren said aloud.

"Yeah, you slipped up Peace." Tara said, secretly wondering why he'd let down his barriers. "Sucks for you, for a second I almost believed that bullshit story."

She was doing exactly what Warren wanted her too now. Which was ok with him. He didn't know why, but a part of him still wanted her to know that it was the truth and that he wasn't lying. The other part knew that this was for the best.

"Tara!" A voice said from the shadows. A face appeared, followed by a body.

"Demitri?" Tara said turning around to be greeted by her brother's angry face.

"What the hell are you doing here?" He asked. "And with _him_?"

"Coincidence." Tara said, noticing Warren slipping away to return to his house. "Weren't you over at Lash's?"

"Yeah, but I had to come home for a couple of things." Demiti said, suspiciously eying Warren as he left. "What did he say to you?"

"Something stupid." Tara said, strangely feeling the need to stretch the truth. "I didn't really pay attention. I think he was trying to make amends or something like that."

"Why? What his dad did is unforgivable." Demitri said with a look of pure disgust.

"I know. That's why I told him to go screw himself and leave me alone." Tara lied.

"I told you I didn't want you talking to him." Demitri said, anger evident in his eyes.

"And I told you that this was just a coincidence." she said. "I couldn't sleep so I went for a walk. He just happened to be out."

"Ok. Anyway. Lets head home." Demitri responded, thankfully buying the story Tara had just fed him. "If mom and dad realize you're gone they'll call the national guard."

"Right." Tara said as the siblings headed back to their house.


	7. Chapter 7

Over the next week, Tara continued to ask herself why Peace had told her that stuff only to make her believe he was lying. She thought at first that he may have just been stupid enough to keep his guards down. However, the rational part of her brain said otherwise. Peace wasn't that stupid. She finally decided that on Friday night to find a way to ask him during school on Friday.

When Friday came around, Tara had absolutely no clue how she would get around to figuring out how to talk to Warren. She had foolishly forgotten about a paper she was supposed to have written, and skipped her Power Training class to hole up in the library and hopefully finish the work. So, that left class out of the question.

By the time Tara had finished her paper and was printing it out, she realized that she was fifteen minutes late for her English class. Deciding it would be pointless to just go for ten minutes of class, she headed out to the front of the school, hoping she wasn't stopped by teachers. Thankfully, and to her surprise, she met no one on the way, and proceeded to the tree she and her friends sat at during free period.

Tara sat down and took out her guitar, which she had brought for her and Cassidy to practice their song later. After getting out of view of windows so that teachers wouldn't see her, she started to play. Minutes passed and soon she was in her own world, drowning out all her surroundings. She was so out of tune with the world that she didn't even notice someone coming over to investigate where music was coming from.

"Langley?" a voice beside her said, startling her off key.

"Ugh, Peace." She said realizing who it was. "What do you want?"

"Just trying to figure out where that awful racket I was hearing was coming from." He responded, nodding to her guitar. "Found it."

"Go screw yourself." She said, going back to her playing and drowning him out.

"Look," he said with a sigh. "Sorry about insulting your playing. You're not completely horrible at it."

"I take it that's as close to a complement that you'll give, huh?" Tara said looking up at him.

"Pretty much." He responded. "Mind if I sit?"

"Long as you don't give me whatever horrible disease you have." Tara said, going back to strumming out her song.

"You play a lot." He said. "I hear you every night. You must really love music."

"Its my life." She said. "Ever since mom. She had bought me my first guitar."

"Hmm." He said as he leaned his back against the tree. "Figured out whether or not you believe me yet?"

Tara shrugged, "Don't know. Thought you didn't care."

"I don't. Not completely." Warren said. "But I would like to know whether or not I should stop trying to piss you off or not."

"And what if I just agreed to get you to leave me alone?" Tara asked, looking him directly in the eye.

"Well, Langley," He said looking back. "I can tell when you're lying."

"Really, and how's that?" She asked, looking at him questioningly.

"When you lie, you always roll your eyes." he said. "You've done it around your brother. Also, if you're lying to a teacher, I've seen you bite at your bottom lip just before answering."

"Wow." she said amused. "You're a stalker aren't you?"

"Not really. I just notice things." He said as he looked up at the sky.

"Right. Again, stalker." Tara replied. "Weird since we're enemies and all."

"Enemies?" Warren asked confused. "Wouldn't go that far. I mean we don't get along but we shouldn't say enemies. That implies deep hatred."

"Then what exactly would you call it Peace?" Tara said. "Sure seems like hatred to me."

"Call it….involuntary disliking." He said thoughtfully. "You didn't seem to have a problem with me before your brother told you who I was, and I didn't until you mentioned my dad. So, its involuntary disliking."

"Call it whatever the fuck you want. I'm out of here." she said gathering her stuff and heading inside just as the bell rang. She didn't know why he was trying to be so nice, but part of her wanted to find out. So, she spent the rest of the day trying to figure out a way to talk to her 'enemy' again outside of school.

That afternoon, during her and Cassidy's practice through of their new song, Tara found herself continuously going off-key something that rarely ever happened.

"T, what's wrong?" Cassidy asked as they stopped for the sixth time in a row. "You're never this off when we play. What's on your mind."

"Nothing. I'm just tired is all." Tara said. "Power Training was really draining today. Top that with Save the Citizen and I'm basically a walking zombie Cass."

"Mariette said you missed Power Training." Cassidy said looking at her friend suspiciously. "You know you can tell me anything Tara, I've been your best friend since kindergarten, when we both got our powers."

"Nothing's wrong Cass, I promise. Just thinking too much again I guess." She said. "You know me."

"I also know that you don't think this much unless something is really up." Cassidy replied. "Now spill it, it's a boy isn't it?"

"No Cassidy, its not a boy." Tara said rather quickly. Realizing what she said she added, "Just thinking of the best way to get you and Demitri together." "Oh." Cassidy responded, blushing deep red. "In that case, how bout we start practice up again later. I'm pretty tired myself."

Tara laughed, knowing that she'd just embarrassed her friend. "Cassidy, just tell him you like him. Seriously you won't burst into flame or anything."

"I know." she said shyly. "Its just that its more complicated than that. What if he doesn't feel the same?"

"Dude, I know my brother. And trust me Cass, he does." Tara said seriously. "And if he said no to a beautiful chick like you he'd be out of his mind! That and I'd kick his ass for it."

The last statement caused Cassidy to burst into laughter and say, "And that is why you're my best friend T."

"I know you'd do the same for me Cass." She said, packing up her guitar. "Now, how bout we go before we miss our ride home. Neither of us know how to fly."

The whole way home, Tara had her green SkullcandyÔ headphones turned up to drown the noise of the bus out, while Mariette and Cassidy sat in the seat in front of her. She listened to Three Days Grace for the majority of the ride, but towards the end she turned her iPod to Shinedown. She had her music up so loud that she didn't even notice that someone had sat beside her when the bus took off. The particular person in question gained the two of them stares from most of the passengers, as well as many hanging jaws.

She finally realized that he was there when she turned to grab her bag from under her legs, and gasped at who it was. Warren Peace, yet again. What was he trying to do, give her a heart attack? Or was he really just stupid enough to not pay attention to where he was sitting.

"Don't worry Langley, I only sat here because there were no empty seats." He said, reading the look on her face. "You can breathe now."

Tara didn't even realize until then that she had, indeed, held her breath by reflex. As the boy beside her stood up and walked to the front of the bus, she slowly stood and finally saw all the stares of the other students. At least her brother wasn't there, she'd have to come up with some explanation if he was. She made her way to the front of the bus and got off right behind Warren.

"Hothead." She said, using Coach Boomers name for him, as the bus drove away.

Warren sighed and turned around. "Yeah. What do you want?"

"Working tonight?" She asked him.

"Yeah, why?" He asked, now very confused.

"When do you get off?" Tara asked again, ignoring his facial expression.

"10:30. Why are you wanting to know Langley?" He asked, now putting up his 'tough guy' façade.

"Calm yourself." She said, noticing the change in tone. "Just be in the park at 10:45 ok? And make sure nobody knows you're there."

"I'll think about it." He said, turning to walk towards his house.

'Perfect' she thought 'As long as he shows up, hopefully I can figure all of this out.'

The pyro-kinetic girl headed to her own house to find that, again, it was empty.

'Gah dad, where are you going lately?' She thought reading the fake note on the fridge. She opened the fridge, grabbed a soda, and headed upstairs to do her homework.

That night, Tara dawned on her favorite maroon hoodie and a pair of slip on Vans and headed out her window, and onto her back deck. She went the same way she'd gone the previous Friday night, except going out her own yard rather than Warren's. She followed the road down to the park, and found that she was fifteen minutes early when she arrived.

Tara spent her extra waiting time by swinging. She didn't have to wait long, after a couple of minutes, she saw the leather jacket wearing guy she was waiting for. He walked over to her and sat down in the swing beside her.

"I got off early." He said shortly.

"Noticed." she replied.

"So, what is it? What do you want?" He asked, not making eye contact.

"Well, um I've been thinking of our past couple of conversations." She said.

"What about them?" He asked.

'She believes me? After that thing I had to think because of her brother, she still knows I'm right? Impossible.' Tara heard him think.

"God Peace! Why do you have to let your guard down around me? I can't control my telepathy yet." She said irritably, causing him to turn and face her quickly.

"I, I didn't know I did Langley." He said seriously. "Honestly I didn't."

"Like you didn't know Friday when my brother showed up?" She said repeating what she'd just heard in his head.

"I had too. You're brother, he knows the truth. If he even suspected you believed me," Warren started defending himself.

"I know." Tara said with a nicer tone in her voice. "I didn't come here to argue."

"Then what did you meet me here for?" he asked, as he was now facing her while still sitting in the swing beside her.

"Well, I wanted to let you know that I do believe the story. I mean it just seems like my dad." She said. "Which is weird to say about your own father, but yeah."

"So, that's all this was about?" Warren said.

"No, not completely." she said quietly. "That was just the main part."

"What's on your mind Langley?" he said standing up, as she was slightly swinging.

"Well, after hearing everything you said, I started to notice these patterns at home." She said as he stepped behind her swing, causing her to get a small cold chill.

"What kind of patterns?" he asked as he began to push her on the swing.

Tara, slightly confused at what had just happened, continued, "Um, like the fact that my brother and my dad are gone a lot lately. Mostly dad though. And he never says where he's going, just leaves a note and comes back at like midnight or later."

"So he's out late doing something, you're brother's gone a lot, ever figure it might be normal?" He said. "You're brother's a teenager and maybe you're dad's dating or something."

"No, Peace." She said sharply, then in a nicer tone added "I mean Warren, I know my dad. But you could be right about Demitri."

"Ok, on second thought, your dad could be planning revenge on the Commander maybe?" Warren suggested.

"Maybe. He's been kind of distant for the past few weeks. Especially since I started at Sky High." She said as he continued pushing her on the swing.

"Any ideas on what he could be doing?" Warren asked.

"No, I mean something tells me Demitri knows. But I'm not too sure." Tara replied. "The two of them talk a lot, and when I come around they change the subject quickly."

"That's not suspicious is it?" Warren said sarcastically.

"I know." She said agreeing. "But what should I do? I don't really have any proof that they're planning anything. And I don't think I can trust Demitri anymore."

"What about your friends?" Warren asked.

"Well, Mariette's engrossed in Frank all the time." Tara explained. "And I guess there's Cassidy, but I'm afraid to say anything because of dad's power."

"Another good point." Warren said. "Seems I'm the only one you got right now."

"Crazy huh?" she said thoughtfully.

"There's a lot of crazy going on lately." He said. "That hippie girl Layla was at work asking advice about Stronghold."

"She's crazy about him. Everybody knows that." Tara said.

"Yeah, everybody but Stronghold." Warren replied.

"Not the brightest crayon in the box is he?" Tara said smiling.

"One of the dullest." Warren said, also smiling.

There was a small silence, in which all that was heard was a faint dog bark, and the sound of the swing moving. It was peaceful. The first completely non-arguing conversation the two of them had had. Tara had to admit that she liked it, which she did.

"This is surprisingly nice." she said quietly, breaking the silence.

"What is?" Warren asked.

"Well, we're actually getting along." Tara said. "Completely getting along. We haven't insulted each other even once."

"You know what. It is nice." Warren agreed.

"Too bad its over." a deep voice said from the road. "Tara Christine, you're coming home now."

Tara gasped. "Dad?"

"Now Tara." He strictly said glaring at Warren.

Tara got up and sighed. "Every fricken time." She said to herself as she walked over to her father. As she walked, she glanced back at Warren only to see that he was gone.


End file.
